


The Sound of Pulling Heaven Down

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 07:20:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1336861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Cerdian gave himself to the woman he loved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sound of Pulling Heaven Down

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Blue October song of the same name. It was always what I could hear for these two during their rockier moments.
> 
> Published over several months on Livejournal as ficlets.

Lian moved to lay her head against Cerdian's shaky chest, knowing he still wasn't quite back from that particular explosion...and it made her smile softly. The smile was short-lived, as he started to speak to her, making her shift again.

"Li...I lo..." Her fingers covered his lips, and her dark eyes watched him with calm seriousness.

"No. Never. You are a Prince of Atlantis, second heir. Not of the Blood, which means you must marry a royal woman." She replaced her fingers with a kiss, then sat up in the bed. "Don't speak of things that will only get in our way, Cer. I like it just as it is, no strings, no complications."

He watched her move from the bed, his own eyes darkened by her rejection, again, of what his heart felt.

Love would not be found in Court, and she denied it to him in the Tower.

What was he to do, other than take what he could have?

* * *

_Running, side by side. Playing in the sand, building sand castles, idle chatter of mothers and fathers and life beyond the Tower._

_Promises made, of friendship and bonds, always to belong together, no matter the pull of families in other directions._

_Long years separated with only brief holidays shared._

_Blinding revelations of man and woman found in the arms of a friend, and new promises to not let it break the friendship._

_Angry, hot tears at feeling her slip away, because he must be a prince and she is not of his race._

* * *

It had never mattered in his mind that he was a Prince of Atlantis, that she was a surface dweller, or that others might not get them. He loved her, and he knew, deep down, that she loved him.

So it had come as a stinging slap in the face when she pushed him away the night he had called her his soulmate, telling him it wasn't possible.

The next day, right in front of him, she kissed Luke dead on the mouth, and made plans with him that barred the date she was supposed to be going on with him.

Cerdian was left stunned, hurting, and angry. Not that she had turned to Luke; they were all Titans, and had accepted the way their lives were woven together. It wasn't like she could really date half the younger Titans, as they were mostly related to her in some way, but it was the cold, hurtful way she had torn his heart apart.

That was how he found himself in Raven's apartment, having fled to the den-mother of their team, one of the few original Titans who still lived at the Tower.

"Raven, how can she just cut me out like that? What did I do to her?" Cerdian asked, pacing fretfully. "I love her, so much."

"And she loves you, Cerdian," Raven murmured softly, wondering, idly, how the children had inherited _all_ the problems of the original groups. "However, she is very aware of many facts. Such as the importance of nobility and heirs."

The weight of her words settled on Cerdian's shoulders, and he frowned. "I want no other."

"Yet your people would never accept her, and she knows it. Neither of your parents are truly of Aquaman's blood, nor of his lady's. They will demand you marry a noble of the city." Raven smiled softly. "We had this problem with Starfire and Nightwing, a tale I am certain Lian is aware of."

Cerdian pondered that for a very long time in silence, finally stilling enough to sit on a pillow. "She said as much."

"I have no answers for you in this."

"Then I will have to make my own," he said firmly, rising. One way or another, Lian was going to accept that he was hers, and that was all he wanted to be.

* * *

Garth knew the moment his son entered the room that this was going to be a rocky meeting. It wasn't often Cerdian specifically asked his father to be free of palace duties for him. Considering that his son was supposed to be at Titan's Tower this weekend had not helped soothe Garth's nerves in the least.

"Dad..." Cerdian looked at his father with misery in his eyes. "Why do we have to be royal?"

That particular question was so far left of the streams Garth had anticipated that he had to take a long moment to recollect himself.

"Orin adopted me. When he did, he conferred full royalty to my line, accepting the bloodlines of Thar and Berra as royal."

"But not of Atlantis, and therefore more constrictive!" Cerdian blew up. "They demand, because I am not of their lines, that I marry one who is!"

"I did not," Garth pointed out.

"But Mom's still a water breather!"

In a crystalline clarity, Garth suddenly understood the nature of this problem. Like Kory, his son was bound by his position, but had also, evidently, found someone that he desired to have abroad.

"Marry here, and let your affairs stay above," Garth advised. "Fidelity is not a very Atlantean trait, if you'll recall. I know you've heard the stories surrounding myself and Orin."

Cerdian nodded at him, but looked just as miserable. "She won't be mine, father. She won't even speak of love, when I know she loves me, that we belong together. She says she will not walk that road, nor keep me from my duty here!"

Garth did some quick figuring in his head, eliminating Miri's child, and coming up with Roy's instead... made sense, growing up with Dick for another father.

"Dart?"

Cer looked at him with haunted eyes. "I love her, dad, and I don't want to cheat a woman here, because only Lian holds my heart."

"Ahh, my son..." Garth shook his head. "Orin only had the one son..."

"Then dammit to Neptune and back but he should do HIS duty and make a new one!" Cerdian exploded, before leaving hastily, unable to stand being in the city that only meant exile from his heart.

* * *

He ignored the bull roar of his name from his grandfather. He ignored the quieter, more desperate call of his mother, and the almost gentle use of his name from his father.

He didn't pay a single thought to the murmur and shock of the rest of the court. He headed swiftly for the exit, refusing to give the guards the opportunity to place him under arrest or 'protective' custody. He'd had enough of that in his life, and as of now he was declaring his freedom from it all.

There was just one place in the world he would ever confine himself, and that particular set of shackles was more than worth everything he had just done to the nation that resented his heritage anyway.

* * *

Lian turned at the sound of wet feet on the tile of the kitchen, to see Cerdian there, his eyes fixed on her in such a stubborn way she knew their argument from the night before was still on his mind. "Cer... no. I won't go through what Papa did over Aunt Kory."

Cerdian strode fully into her space, and then dropped awkwardly to one knee, holding up a single ring with a modest stone set in it.

"You don't have to, but I still want you to grant me the privilege of being your husband, Lian!"

The olive skin wrinkled around her eyes as she glared at him. "Cerdian, you are an heir prince! I …"

He stood up, right there on top of her. He kissed her to stop her words, feeling her resist him, and that made him drop back. "Lian... I'm not!"

"What?"

Cerdian held the ring up for her to see, reaching desperately for her hand. "Li... beautiful blossom, woman I want to share my life with, what use do I have for a nation that hates me for not being of their blood? What use have I for a title, when I have the greatest treasure right here in front of me?"

Lian felt tears prick at her eyes, stinging them, and she had learned as a child not to cry. She looked at her lover, the friend she'd had for so long that she could not imagine him being anywhere but in her life. "I... Cer, really?" At his nod, she swallowed. "What if I said no?" she asked, pushing him, pushing them.

"Then I guess I'd be asking to just be your love-slave like everyone says I am," he managed, though fear ran through his veins when she said that. Not, he knew, for what he had given up, but for the sheer thought of ever losing her.

Lian laughed, quiet and low, before setting her hand in his for the ring to be put on it. "You are one crazy boy," she told him before kissing him solidly and hard, pushing him back against the table to show him how crazy they both were, uncaring that they were in the Tower.

They were Titans, and the other would understand, move on, or stay and cheer... and she didn't care which.


End file.
